


One Call Away

by titaniumplatedspine



Series: Cop a Feel [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 911 dispatcher, F/F, F/M, also stupid people calling 911 for stupid shit, mentions of suicide attempts and drug overdoses, the fuck you my job sucks fic, things you call 911 for, unseen heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 20:29:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15565803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumplatedspine/pseuds/titaniumplatedspine
Summary: "911, what's your emergency"A companion piece to Cop a Feel, focused on the lovely women of dispatch.





	One Call Away

**Author's Note:**

> I could not do this without the wonderful beta skills of thoughtsappear. xoxo

“I had a dream about this place last night.” Sara told Anya in between puffs of her cigarette. They were standing in a parking ramp, hiding from the rain falling down. Anya was bundled as she always was in a thick jacket with gloves and a scarf, while Sara had on just a hoodie on with the hood up. “My radio kept switching to inactive channels, and it was the middle of a SWAT callout.I kept missing everything that was going on and for some reason all the K9’s were running around dispatch.”

Anya didn’t say anything, didn’t even seem to be listening to Sara while she exhaled a cloud of smoke. She nudged Sara’s arm when a slick red car pulled up, and a petite dark haired woman got out and walked to the after hours entrance.

“Bella”s here early.” Sara remarked and Anya nodded. There was a moment of silence, and then Anya spoke again, “Georgi applied to be the new K9 officer.”

“Taking Dave’s place?” Sara asked, and Anya nodded, “But what happens to Viktor?”

“He’d get a new partner, maybe reassigned. Georgi is keeping it quiet.” Quiet, Sara understood, meaning Anya trusted her not to tell Mila who may tell Viktor.

“Of course.” Sara murmured, and Anya graced her with a small, tight smile. Anya knew what she was asking. Even though dispatchers worked hand in hand with the local officers, there were things they didn’t, or more accurately couldn’t, share. Sara knew this had been a source of strain for Anya and Georgi before. Sara finished her cigarette and ground the butt out beneath her sneaker. Anya did the same next to her. “Ready?” Sara asked with a grin. Anya only scoffed next to her before striding across the street. It was time to work.

==

“081, mmmf 89 mmmhmmm on first and Karhmmph.”

“081, you’re unreadable.” Anya spat back over the radio, and Sara could tell she was already over today. Anya had the unfortunate honor of being the primary dispatcher on the police radio channel today, while Sara backed her up. Isabella was handling the radio for the fire department and ambulance services for the city. Deanna, who none of them liked very much, was handling the county officers, which meant Bella was handling the county officers because Deanna was useless. 

“Trafifff, 78hssshjydddd on psssssh and Karen.”

“081, I have traffic stop on First and Karen, unable to copy the plate.” Anya answered, typing to enter the call. “Jesus fuck, Chris needs to get the shit out of his mouth.” she yelled out to the room in general.

“More like the dick.” Bella yelled back from her desk, and Sara giggled despite herself. Even Anya cracked a small smile. Chris was notorious for being impossible to understand. Anya had been working with him the longest and still had problems. No matter how many times they tried to explain to him it was a safety issue ("How do we send you back up in an emergency if we don't know where the fuck you are?" was almost a daily point they made), it hadn't changed anything. It was something all the dispatchers hated, but they lived with it. Chris was far from the only officer with a trait that made their job difficult. 

911 chose that moment to light up, and Bella was the first to grab it. Sara pulled up the Fire and EMS channels making a face at Anya. Technically this was Deanna's job since she and Bella were sharing a pod, but she was nearing retirement and did not give a fuck about working anymore. Her annoyance faded when Bella's voice raised, and Sara recognized the tone. This was urgent. 

"Dispatch to all available units, I have an open 911 line with a child screaming about their mother being blue in the face and foaming from the mouth, large phase in the area of Second and South, trying to get a better location." Bella broke off her transmission to yell out to the dispatch center, "Sara, can you stage me a med?"

Sara was already on it, pulling up the med call and sending out a page to the local fire station, "Alerting Springfield for a med, respond and stage near Second and South. We have an open line with a child stating their mother is blue in the face and foaming at the mouth, trying to get a better location now."

Bella was doing her best at the other end of the room to soothe the child and get better information. Anya was in detective mode, running history on the phone number trying to see if there were any addresses attached to it in their system. Sara was helping her out on the radio and covering the fire channels, when she heard a county officer call out and no one answered. She glanced at the other side of the room and Deanna was missing. 

"Son of a bitch!" She swore under her breath, while she grabbed both police channels and asked all units to stand by with non emergent radio traffic. It wouldn't help much because they all thought everything was an emergency, but it would buy her some breathing room. 

Bella's voice still rang out over the dispatch center, talking with the child, "Ok Angela sweetheart, you're doing great. I need you to look around and see if there's any mail in your house. Okay, you found some? Good, can you tell me what the address says? No, you can't read. Ok that's fine. You did a very good thing by calling me sweetheart. Is there any other adult home? What about a neighbor? Well, Mommy is right to tell you not to go outside by yourself, but this is an emergency and I'll be with you the whole time. I know you're scared sweetie, but I need you to be brave for me so I can help your mommy. You're going to the door? Good girl Angela, that's great." Bella switched from the call and grabbed the radio channel so she could relay her information to the officers, "Unit's responding to Second and South, I can't get a good phase on this phone, but the caller is going to step outside and look for an officer. She's a six year old girl in unicorn pajamas."

Bella switched back to the call, soothing and prompting her caller outside. The whole time she continued to re-ping her call, hoping this time she would get an accurate location on where it originated. Anya was keeping up with officers, making notes in the call of each area they had checked as they called it out. Sara was struggling to keep up with the EMS who was also circling looking for the young girl, as well as county units who had joined in on the call. She was going to kill Deanna. 

"152 to other units, we've got her! 512 South St!" 

Sara thanked whatever deity might be listening in her head, but she didn't waste a second saying it out loud. She related the updated location to the ambulance first, getting them heading to the correct location to help the mother. Really, Phichit and Katsuki were the best options for finding a young child. They both were gentle and reassuring, and would do good at comforting young Angela. Their natures were annoying when they couldn't resist trying to get baby ducks out of a storm drain when there were other calls pending, calls that were actually law enforcement issues, but they'd never had a civilian complaint. 

Viktor was on scene with Georgi moments later, and they ran inside the house because the next words across the radio were an update from Viktor, "Dispatch, female is blue in the face and foaming from the mouth, breathing but very labored, can you advise the med?"

"10-4, they were advised of the initial complaint when they were paged. They're staged at Third and South." Sara almost smiled. Viktor had a terrible habit of repeating any information he'd been given like he'd just discovered it on his own. Most of the dispatchers just rolled their eyes and ignored it, but Anya didn't put up with any nonsense from anyone. Sara wanted to be like her when she grew up. 

With the officers on scene, Bella had finally ended her 911 call, but Sara was worried. She looked a little hollow, and Sara wondered who she knew that had overdosed. She knew the signs of a call hitting too close to home, and when the radio chatter died down for a minute she elbowed Anya and tilted her head in Bella's direction. Anya's eyes took her in with sympathy, then narrowed in anger when she saw Deanna still wasn't back. She grabbed her phone, and Sara's buzzed in her pocket a second later.

Head Bitch (19:47): drinks at mine after work? we'll kidnap the new girl

Sara nodded, and Anya gave her a tight smile back. They'd been short staffed and working with people like Deanna for years. They weren't letting this job drown the first good coworker they'd had.

==

The adrenaline high of a big call always took a while to fade from Sara’s system, and left her feeling jittery and on edge for the next hour. When Deanna had finally shown up Bella had excused herself to use the bathroom. She’d come back to the room five minutes later with red eyes, but jumped right back into taking calls. Anya had asked Sara to cover the radio for a minute while she composed a very strongly worded email to their command staff about the incident and Deanna’s disappearance. Anya had checked the system. Bella was already taking the call when Deanna had logged out and left the room without telling anyone. Anya was tight lipped and Sara could tell she was barely holding onto her temper. 

Sara was trying to explain to a drunk man on the phone that she couldn’t give him permission to park in a no parking zone, and Bella was entering a report for a runaway. From the soft snoring sounds from the other end of the room, Sara was pretty sure Deanna was sleeping. Sara finally got her caller on the phone, and stretched her arms above her head. It was barely three, and she didn’t know how she was going to survive the next few hours. She needed a nap. 

“Hey Sara, will you check this for me?” Bella had slid up to Sara almost silently, holding her completed runaway entry. Sara grumbled good naturedly but grabbed the report. Anya took the opportunity to slip over as well and put a hand on Bella’s shoulder. 

“You did a great job earlier.” Bella flushed and looked away, and Anya squeezed her shoulder slightly before letting go, “I’m serious. You kept the girl calm and got her mom the help she needed. I passed the call along to higher ups, and asked that you get a positive report in your employee file. No guarantees though.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Bella stammered out, “I just wanted to help.”

“Don’t worry new girl. Chances are nothing will come of it. Sara ever tell you about that time the woman drove into a lake on her?”

Bella shook her head and looked at Sara with wide eyes. Sara scoffed and crossed her arms. She wasn’t bitter exactly about the memory, but she was a little annoyed.

“Woman called 911 completely trashed. She was suicidal and I spent 20 minutes on the phone with her trying to talk her down while she drove around town. I kept updating officers but they couldn’t find her. Finally she stopped moving because she’d driven into a lake. Jorge and Sean were on scene first and managed to pull her from the car before it submerged. They both got life saving awards and a commendation from the mayor. I didn’t even get a note in my file.”

Anya shrugged and rolled her eyes while Bella made disbelieving noises on Sara’s behalf, “Get used to it. We’re the most ignored department here. Notice how we have the oldest computers even though ours get the most use? How we have the crappy hand me down chairs that admin is sick of? Even our callers forget us because we’re out of sight.”

“But we’re the most important piece of the puzzle.” Sara cut in before Anya could scare Bella too much, “No one gets the help they need without us here to answer the phone. And we are out of sight, but that just means we don’t have to wear a uniform. But this department will fight for each other. I spend more time with Anya than I do my own girlfriend, and we have a good group of officers on this shift who appreciate us.”

“Even when they’re dumbasses.”

“Especially when they’re dumbasses. So don’t let the negative stuff scare you off, okay?”

Bella laughed at both of them, and Sara was happy to see some light return to her eyes. 

“So what you’re telling me is the hours suck, the pay isn’t nearly worth it for the stress, I’ll have a bad back and worse eyes by the time I retire, but at least I have good co-workers?”

“You catch on quick new girl.” Anya shot back as she grabbed the remote and started channel surfing on the TV in the corner. She paused on an infomercial for sex toys, and her eyebrows furrowed at the anal beads the woman was holding up. “Hey, do you think there’s a difference between regular lube, and anal lube?”

“I don’t know, spit is spit.” Sara shot back, and Anya threw the remote at her. Bella slid out of her chair and under her desk she was laughing so hard, and soon Sara and Anya had joined her. The sound of 911 had them all scrambling to their desks, and this time it was Anya who answered first.

“Springfield 911, what’s your emergency?...You need an ambulance where?....Are you already at the hospital?.....Ma’am I can’t send you an ambulance to take you to a different hospital because of the wait.”

Sara met Bella’s eyes over their monitors and they both struggled not to laugh. At least things were never boring. 

==

Two days later, Sara sat in the back of a classroom at the police department surrounded by rowdy officers, Mila's legs across her lap. It was CPR recertification day, and Sara was watching Anya try not to lose her mind. 

"Hey all of you useless, empty headed, shit for brain asshats, shut the fuck up and try to learn something!! Not you Bella, you're great." Anya threw in aside to Bella, who was watching the chaos around her with wide eyes. "I have shit to do today, and spending any more time with all of you than I have to is not on my agenda."

"I love you Anya!" called Yuri from Mila's other side, and Anya flipped him off. Sara barely contained her laughter. For all of Anya's bluster, she really loved all of 'her' people. She just had a tough time showing it.

CPR recerts went as well as could be expected. Yuri and Mila had tied their dummy to a chair, and were threatening him in Russian with plastic knives from the lunch cart. Chris was pretending to make out with his dummy, instead of helping Anya instruct. Yuuri and Phichit were singing "Staying Alive" at the top of their lungs while playfully acting out dramatic rescues of their dummy. Anya had given up on the chaos, and after making sure they all actually could do CPR, signed their paperwork and told Chris the class was his problem now before leaving the room.

"Hey Chulanont, give us a new song!" Mila called out across the class. Phichit furrowed his brows, thinking.

"What other songs have the right beat again?" he called back to her, and Georgi piped up before she could answer.

"Another One Bites the Dust!" 

Katsuki shrieked in mock outrage, and Yuri cackled across the room. Phichit just shrugged and started in on the new song. Sara giggled and eyed up Bella who was smiling next to her. She'd been withdrawn after work the other day, barely speaking and falling asleep on Anya’s shoulder about thirty seconds into drinks and a movie, but she looked better now. Sara gave her a grin and pulled their dummy closer. Maybe they had helped Bella enough after all. 

==

Sara watched the sky nervously as she drove into work. They were supposed to get hit with a pretty big storm tonight, and she was just hoping it held off until later. Like, tomorrow after six o’clock maybe. Sometime she wasn’t working would be best, but she’d settle for after most people were asleep and not driving.

She and Anya were silent through their pre-work smoking ritual, and Sara winced when Bella pulled into the lot. She’d have to remind Bella to move her car into underground parking later. The weather was calling for golf ball sized hail with the storm, and it would be a shame if her car took damage. 

Of course the storm didn’t wait until the next morning to hit. It didn’t even wait until nightfall. It felt like only seconds between the first rain drop falling, and every single phone and 911 line lighting up. There were trees and power lines down in the roads everywhere, and subsequent power outages across the city. Sara was going to put herself through a wall if she had to explain to one more person they needed to call their power company about the power outage, not 911. Bella looked like she was contemplating strangling herself with the phone cord, and Sara couldn’t blame her. The power outage had set off the security systems for every single business in the downtown area, and they didn’t have nearly enough officers to send to check on every alarm, plus all the other calls coming in all over the city. 

“Holding up okay Bells?” she called out, and Bella nodded her head tersely while she reached for yet another ringing phone. Sara heard an officer ask for a tow truck on the county channel, and then Anya’ voice was cutting across both police channels sharply.

“Dispatch to all officers, emergency traffic only on all channels. We will not be calling tows or running information until the storm has passed.”

It was only seconds before the phone was ringing, and they all recognized Yakov’s extension. Anya grabbed it with a curse. 

“What Feltsman? I’m busy....I don’t care...I still don’t care….They’re big boys and girls, they can use their own phones to call a tow, we’re slammed in here...Whatever, go ahead and complain, we’re still not doing it until we slow down...911 is ringing I need to go.”

With that Anya slammed down her phone and hit the button to answer 911 instead, “Springfield 911, what’s your emergency...Sir, slow down...Sir, I don’t speak Chinese!”

==

Work came too early the next day as it always did, but at least Yakov had promised to buy them all dinner as an apology for his temper tantrum the night before. This time Bella joined Anya and Sara for their pre-work smoke. She smoked something that smelled like menthol and pretentiousness, and Sara was giving her shit all the way to the door when they all stopped at the sight of the plastic bag taped there.

"Is that..." Bella trailed off, too stunned to finish. 

"Oh my god," Sara cackled, "it is."

Anya stepped forward, even though Sara tried to pull her back, half heartedly protesting it could be a bomb through her laughter. 

"It's not a bomb you moron. It's a giant dildo and it has a note." Anya pulled the piece of paper free from where it was taped to the outside of the bag and opened it, "To the Springfield Dispatch Department, so you can fuck yourselves the way you've fucked this city. Note there is no lube you assholes."

Sara clutched onto Bella to keep her upright as she giggled, while Anya struggled to remove the clear bag that had been extensively duct taped to the door.

"Well it's nice to know we're appreciated." cracked Bella with a wry grin, and Sara almost lost it again. This job was stressful, and the officers were a pain in the ass (her own girlfriend included), and the citizens didn't know enough of what they did to be grateful, but she had her team and that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Springfield is just a random very common city name I picked for this fic. There's no special meaning to it. 
> 
> All of the situations in this fic are based on calls and situations I have experienced in my real life job. It's not a glamorous job at all, and the technology is way behind what you see in TV. If you're ever curious, I would love to answer your questions here or on my [tumblr](https://titaniumplatedspine.tumblr.com/)


End file.
